Ezekiel 1:20 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Whithersoever the spirit; either the will and inclination of the living creatures, or rather the Spirit of God which moved the living creatures, gave them motion and guided it; these angels in their ministry punctually observed both the impulse and the conduct of God's Spirit. Was to go: of this phrase applied to the Spirit, see Ezekiel 1:12. They went; the wheels, those inferior agents and second causes. Thither was their spirit to go; the inclination and will of the wheels concurred with the spirit of the living creatures, so that there was a hearty accord between those superior and inferior causes, they agreed in the same design. And the wheels were lifted up over against them: there seems to be an ellipsis here, the latter part of the speech expressed, and the former implied only; as it was in the progressive motion, so in the motion upward, they accorded, and kept the same order. For the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels; one and the same spirit was in both the wheels and living creatures, and so the same inclination and motion too. Of the living, Heb. of life, the quickening, enlivening Spirit; hence some will have the wheels to be living creatures, but without this it is enough to represent to the prophet what was the frame and course of Providence, and who did preside and manage all. An undiscerned, yet Divine, mighty, wise, just, and holy, and ever-living, Power, Spirit, and Being actuated all, and governed all, to the execution of justice on the wicked, and protection of the godly.